Illinois Meek Ballot Access Improvement Bill Passes

Posted on by August 12, 2007
Reply

The Illinois legislature has passed SB 662, and the bill is on its way to the Governor. Illinois is only the third state this year in which any ballot access improvement bills have passed the state legislature. The others are Arkansas and Colorado. SB 662 is not the same bill that had been carrying the improvements; it is an omnibus bill. The bill makes the independent candidate deadline for all office equal to the deadline for new and unqualified party petitions, namely June of election years. It also lowers the 10% petition requirement for independent candidates for legislature to 5%. Assuming the Governor signs the bill, there will no longer be any independent candidate petition requirements anywhere in the nation at a level worse than 5% of the number of registered voters, except for certain small districts in New Hampshire. Thanks to Chris Bennett for this news.

Illinois Election Law Bills Extended Again

Posted on by August 11, 2007
Reply

Two interesting Illinois election law bills, HB 1685 (National Popular Vote Plan) and HB 1752 (meek ballot access improvements) were supposed to have passed by August 10, or been considered dead. However, both bills have been extended again, until August 17. The Illinois legislature is in special session so all bills are under tight deadlines. Both bills have passed both houses, but conference committees are needed.

Next Oklahoma Ballot Access Meeting

Posted on by August 10, 2007
Reply

Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform, the group working on the proposed initiative to ask the voters of Oklahoma if they want to ease the ballot access laws, is meeting again on August 18, Saturday, in Stroud, Oklahoma. The meeting is at 1:30 pm at Mazzio’s Restauraut. For more information see www.OkVoterChoice.org.

Ballot Initiatives to Alter Electoral College

Posted on by August 10, 2007
Reply

During August, a proposed California initiative to alter the way California chooses presidential electors has garnered considerable publicity. The proposed initiative, backed by Republican Party leaders, would provide that each U.S. House district would choose its own presidential elector. Since California normally casts all its electoral votes for the Democratic nominee, and since this plan would presumably produce approximately 34 Democratic electors and 21 Republican electors from California, Democrats have already begun to attack the idea.

However, both sides may have overlooked the broader ramifications. 23 states have the initiative process (Illinois’ so-called initiative can’t be used for almost all topics, so Illinois is not included). Of those 23 states, 18 of them voted for Bush in each of the last presidential elections. If Republicans could do an initiative in California, Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon and Washington, then Democrats are free to do similiar initiatives in the other 18 initiative states, which include Ohio and Florida.

Furthermore, there is no reason the proposed initiatives need to give each US House district its own elector. Another alternative would be one similar to that defeated in Colorado in 2004, to divide each state’s electors proportionately to the popular vote. In this manner, even the 5 Republican states with only a single US House district (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska) could end up with plans that would normally result in 2 Republican electors and 1 Democratic elector.

A broader implication for these initiatives might be a final revulsion with the electoral college, and a push for either the National Popular Vote plan, or a constitutional amendment to end the electoral college.